{"id":105905,"date":"2025-08-30T04:23:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T04:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/105905\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T04:23:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T04:23:07","slug":"nba-all-time-rank-no-12-hakeem-olajuwon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/105905\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA All-Time Rank No. 12: Hakeem Olajuwon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ranking the top 50 players in NBA history\u2026<\/p>\n<p>12. Hakeem Olajuwon<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Dream\u201d is one of the greatest centers ever. <\/p>\n<p>Selected No. 1 overall by the Houston Rockets in 1984 out of the University of Houston, where he reached three Final Fours, Olajuwon played 18 NBA seasons (Rockets 1984-2001, Toronto Raptors 2001-2002). <\/p>\n<p>He averaged 21.8 points, 11.1 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game, leading the league in blocks three times and rebounds twice. <\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>A 12-time All-Star, Olajuwon won back-to-back championships (1994, 1995) during Michael Jordan\u2019s retirement, earning Finals MVP both years (and dominating Shaquille O\u2019Neal in 1995). <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>Olajuwon was NBA MVP in 1994, Defensive Player of the Year twice (1993, 1994), and snagged six All-NBA First Team selections. <\/p>\n<p>Famous for his \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=9J-WJ5739Tg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dream Shake<\/a>\u201d footwork, Olajuwon also retired as the all-time blocks leader (3,830). He was a force to be reckoned with on both ends, and you won\u2019t find a more impressive example in NBA history of an athletic specimen who mastered footwork.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008, his post moves influenced stars who played any\/all positions, including Kobe Bryant.<\/p>\n<p>Despite early playoff struggles, Olajuwon conquered the NBA during his prime.<\/p>\n<p>His combination of size, athleticism, skill and defense will seldom be seen again.<\/p>\n<p class=\"nesn-in-content-ad__copy\">Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ranking the top 50 players in NBA history\u2026 12. Hakeem Olajuwon \u201cThe Dream\u201d is one of the greatest&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105906,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-105905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}